Earthquake Housing Studied

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31763, 21 August 1968, Page 1

Earthquake Housing Studied

“Domestic housing in earthquake areas is one of the many problems for which, so far, we do not have complete answers,” said Mr R. Shepherd, reader in civil engineering at the University of Canterbury, on his return yesterday after leading a university engineering survey of all districts affected by the Inangahua earthquake.

Mr Shepherd said that public works had been subject to more study and were of greater economic import-

ance but housing was of greatest individual concern. For this reason, Mr Shepherd said, bis party of 16 staff members and senior research students was glad to have met scores of local residents as well as civil defence, local body, and Government officials who had all been most helpful. The survey party was particularly grateful to the Inangahua County Clerk (Mr T. E. Moore) for arranging a meeting for the engineers with all interests and then arranging visits to scattered centres for specialised studies.

The engineers made their surveys under seven headings: Soil slips; ground movements checked against

survey pegs planted two years ago; effects on timber structures; effects on masonry structures; tank towers and power poles; roads, railways and bridges; rivers and ground water levels. Mr Shepherd said that he did not yet know all that the others had done but his own study of damage to bridges involved observations of damage and distortion in relation to the natural foundation characteristics. He said he hoped to show that certain ground would behave in a certain way in earthquakes of this magnitude. “If the theoretical analysis fits the facts we will contribute something to design knowledge,” he said. Many groups had localised

reports on the damage they had to restore, Mr Shepherd said. Government departments had been generous in supplying such information. But nobody had made a comprehensive survey of all aspects. Indeed, New Zealand had very inadequate information on all that had happened in past earthquakes. The university team hoped to give a well-documented Inangahua record embracing its own and the observations of others, accompanied by technical reports on each aspect. “This exercise has vastly improved engineering lecturers’ first-hand understanding of what actually happens in earthquakes; it has stimulated both staff and students to think about what they are looking at; and it has given these final-year students, who will design the earthquakeresistant structures of the future, a tremendous boost,” said Mr Shepherd.